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Liz Postlethwaite: 'Leave Home' by The Chemical Brothers
71 Plays6 months ago
Liz is a community artist and organiser. She has particular interest in the way that an open, creative, inclusive process can be used to encourage the development of ecosystems where all species can flourish. She is committed to developing work which explores how we can take inspiration from the natural world that we are part of to create places and spaces where regenerative cultures can thrive.
She is a Certified Permaculture Educator. In 2022 she launched the UK’s first Full Permaculture Design Course specifically focused on artists and creatives, and is a pioneer in the exploration of ideas around permaculture design, imagination and art.
In a voluntary capacity she is co-founder and co-ordinator for a local community group working to maintain and improve 120 acres of meadows and woodland at the point where the River Roch and River Irwell converge in Bury, North Manchester.
Help us a grow a community of survival song listeners by joining us on over on Substack:
https://survivalsongs.substack.com/
'Leave Home' by The Chemical Brothers by can be found on our community playlist on Spotify along with our listener’s Survival Songs. Check it out and add your own!
This episode contains small portions of ’'Leave Home' by The Chemical Brothers, Survival Songs claims no copyright of this work. This is included as a form of music review and criticism and as a way to celebrate, promote and encourage the listener to seek out the artists work.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Survival Songs'
00:00:01
Speaker
I'm Lydia. I'm Ed. We're friends with a playlist for everything. And it turns out, we both have one called survival songs. And he got us thinking, what are other people's survival songs? So we thought we'd find out.
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to
Guest Format and Community Engagement
00:00:16
Speaker
Survival Songs. A podcast where each episode our guest tells us about a song that gets them through the best and worst of times. Sensitive topics might be discussed. So look after yourself. The show contains portions of copyrighted material. We'd love for you to support and celebrate the artists by streaming, downloading and buying their brilliant music. And go give our guests a follow on social media.
00:00:38
Speaker
Help us grow the community of survival song listeners by joining us over on Substack and add to our public playlist on Spotify. Links are in the show notes. We hope you enjoy the show. Welcome back to Survival Songs. It's Lydia again this week. And
Meet Liz Postlethwaite
00:00:54
Speaker
today I'm talking to Liz Postlethwaite, who is someone who's been on my radar for a long time. But sometimes you need a silly podcast talking about music and songs to be able to instigate that conversation that you really want to have. And this is one of those. I had such a good time talking to Liz. I hope you're going to love this. Here's a little bit more about her.
00:01:16
Speaker
Liz is a community artist and organizer. She has a particular interest in the way that an open, creative, inclusive process can be used to encourage the development of ecosystems where all species can flourish. Sounds good, right? She is committed to developing work which explores how we can take inspiration from the natural world that we are part of to create places and spaces where regenerative cultures can thrive.
00:01:42
Speaker
She's a certified permaculture educator and in 2022 she launched the UK's first full permaculture design course specifically focused on artists and creatives and is a pioneer in the exploration of ideas around permaculture design, imagination and art.
00:01:59
Speaker
In a
Liz's Community and Environmental Work
00:02:00
Speaker
voluntary capacity, she is co-founder and coordinator for a local community group who works to maintain and improve 120 acres of meadows and woodland at the point where the River Roach and River Erwell converge in Berry, North Manchester.
00:02:16
Speaker
So, you know, with all of those ideas in the mix, surely she's choosing a song that talks about the planet and community and connection. No,
Liz's Survival Song: 'Leave Home' by Chemical Brothers
00:02:25
Speaker
this is Liz's survival song, Leave Home by the Chemical Brothers.
00:02:49
Speaker
Alright, so that was A Little Bit of Leave Home by the Chemical Brothers, which is the excellent and but just brilliant choice of Liz Postlethwaite. Hi, Liz. Hi, Lydia. How are you? Really, really well. Thank you for having this conversation with me. Thank you for inviting me to have the conversation. My goodness, I love this song and I've really extra been looking forward to this conversation for really selfish reasons.
00:03:15
Speaker
and So if you'll indulge me, the story is that this podcast is based on the fact that Ed and I both have playlists called survival songs and that's where this came from. And I have the Chemical Brothers on my survival songs playlist, but I have Let Forever Be on my playlist. So when I was listening to Leave Home, I immediately thought, oh, I have to know how much crossover there is, whether Liz has it for the same reason I have it, what the vibes are, but I i just have all the questions. Can you start by telling me how you met the song, ah when it crossed paths with you, or why it stuck with you? Well,
Significance of the Song in Liz's Life
00:03:52
Speaker
it's quite interesting. I'm just going to answer a little bit of a different question first because and of of why I chose the song, if that's okay. Of course, yeah. Because you asked, so you so you sent me this really nice provocation about choosing a song and
00:04:07
Speaker
And I thought about lots of songs that I like um and ah um lots of different music that I like. But then I kept coming back to this song because it was ah it was a piece of music that has kind of resonated throughout my adult life because I'm putting an age on myself now. But I was just like doing my A levels and going to university when this record came out. and So so there's a lot of there's a lot of music and I say records because I am a record owner so we have got this record on record downstairs. There's a lot of records that I really like them now but they didn't feel that they had such a resonance over time and as a piece of music
00:04:56
Speaker
This is a piece of music that I've come back to lots over the years and that I just love. And and now it's a piece of music that my son, my eight-year-old, and I love putting on the record player and just going crazy and dancing to. I can't remember how
Collective Musical Experiences
00:05:15
Speaker
I came across it, but I don't know how much, you know about the Chemical Brothers, but before the Chemical Brothers were called the Chemical Brothers, they were called the Dust Brothers.
00:05:23
Speaker
and and ah And so that's why the name of this album is Exit Planet Dust because and there existed a band who were called the Dust Brothers. So the Chemical Brothers were told that they had to change their name. This was like 94 or 93. There was a cassette and it was a Christmas mixtape by the Dust Brothers. um It was called Christmas Dust Up.
00:05:48
Speaker
And this was on it. and And it was a cassette. This was when we were like all learning to drive and we used to blast it out in the car. But the way that the the track was programmed, I don't know how they did it, but it felt like it spun around the speakers in the car. So that was kind of like the start of kind of this long relationship over my life, the Chemical Brothers.
00:06:15
Speaker
it's just like such a great piece of music but of like such an era as well and when you look back at that era ah you feel really lucky to have been a young person then because the concerns that exist now they probably did exist but there wasn't an awareness of them And there was just something really wild about it. So does it still give you, is there an element of you the way you feel now when you listen to it is like when you're listening to it when you were in your late teens or is it something different now? No, I think it is because, but in ah in a sense of, and so at the same time as they were releasing this music, they were playing at really small venues in Manchester. So we saw the Chemical Brothers and the Dust Brothers at lots of like
00:07:03
Speaker
inconceivably small venues compared to the status that they've got now and rightly so the status that they've got now because they're a really really great band and they're really great musicians and and and I still think they're a really good live act and what what is really good about them is like there's kind of a euphoric thing to being in a big group of people listening to this music So I think it does have the same impact in a way, but of that like collective experience of a piece of music, and I'm quite into collective experiences, but what I like about this piece of music is its personal
00:07:44
Speaker
but I couldn't disentangle it from these kind of communal experiences with friends and and with lots of other people and the kind of and sense of freedom to that music as well, I think. The reason that they're on my playlist is that euphoria, that freedom, that sense of being bigger than my own body and definitely part of being and part of a collective or even just the human race, there's just like an odd kind of and shortcut to all of those feelings of you're tiny, everything's huge and that is massive and great and okay and it's all going to be fine. the same
Music's Role in Permaculture and Art
00:08:23
Speaker
Does that collective experience piece relate to why you chose it in relation to ideas of survival? I think it's kind of a piece of music for me, which is quite grounding, if that makes sense, which kind of sounds quite contradictory because it's quite a wild piece of music and like quite
00:08:41
Speaker
a rousing piece of music, but there's something very comfortable about it for me because it's a piece of music that I feel really comfortable with. I feel that I've known it really well because I've always listened to it. So in terms of a piece of music to put on,
00:08:59
Speaker
It's almost comforting in terms of survival in an embodied, physical way rather than an intellectual way, if that makes sense. yeah yeah in the It's connected to really positive experiences, so it kind of grounds me in that way, I guess.
00:09:19
Speaker
yeah Yeah, there's also something kind of like the beat is sort of at the speed of a heart rate or you know, I can imagine it becoming sort of part of your body, part of your systems kind of and worming its way through and yeah, that grounding idea makes all the sense in the world.
00:09:39
Speaker
i I feel a bit strange asking this question to you and you're the first person I've paused before asking it. i I'm interested to know what you'll say. You've referred to it as a piece of music a few times and given the the lack of lyrics or the the limited lyrics that feels like a fair way to refer to it. But one of the things that Ed and I always ask is whether there's there's a bit that you wait for. Is there a part of this song that you're like, ah, that's the beat I wanted to drop, or that's the section I'm waiting for? though That's the line I like, but given that there's only one line, I'm wondering what your answer is to this. I probably don't speak about music articulately enough to express it, but I do think it is you know that and that feeling, because it feels like it's a
00:10:24
Speaker
whirling piece of music that swirls into a moment. And actually, when we saw them, I saw the chemical artists play at the Ritz in Manchester. On each corner, they had big stacks of speakers. So you were the music was physically swirling around in the way that it was mixed. And then when it just kind of ah hits that moment,
00:10:58
Speaker
and everyone goes crazy, who couldn't go crazy? um I don't want to reach to places where the connection and or reach for ideas that that don't make sense to this, but loads of your work, is ah it kind of feels like it resonates with some of these ideas of presencing, taking note of what's there, taking note of who's there and how it all works together. and i'm I'm kind of connecting the idea of survival in this song of It sort of takes you to an idea or a not a utopia, but a ah ah hope, a way of being together as ah as a marker, a really strong vision of that. Perhaps you could listen to this song and then go create something wonderful in the world. I don't know, but it sort of feels like this is its one of the tools in your toolkit almost.
00:11:46
Speaker
I think so and I think you know obviously like my practice and you know I've i've got kind of a socially engaged arts practice but I'm a permaculture designer I'm really interested in kind of regenerative design and regenerative processes and that's all about connection it's all about interconnectedness and And I think it's really interesting when you think about survival um and ah survival, which kind of is connected so closely to ideas of being well and wellness. And we live in a world now that says that wellness is an individual pursuit, but it just isn't. It's about, for me, you know my my my first art form,
00:12:31
Speaker
ah the art form where I kind of learned to be an artist is theatre. And theatre is like the ultimate collective experience, the collective is at its whole, it is it. And I think to be drawn to a piece of music that's about that kind of collective connection, you're right, it does, I think a lot of my kind of practice is about building or being part of ah connecting links between people, connecting links between each other and links beyond our species as well to other known and unknown things. And you're right there is an element of that within this music I think and I think that's what draws me back to it maybe.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah. I'm wondering how regularly you're reaching for this song, or how often you're playing it. It sounds like you share it with your son now, which is gorgeous. Is this something that gets regularly requested in your house, or is it pulled out for special occasions? No, it is. I mean,
Personal vs Public Music Enjoyment
00:13:31
Speaker
we've got a record player. We are a record we're a record family, definitely. but And this is one of the ones that does always stand next to the record player, so it's never put back onto the shelf. And it doesn't get played that often, but there's specific moments when it will be reached for.
00:13:46
Speaker
I don't even know if I'd play it for the people. I'm just thinking like, if you had a party in your house, would you play it for the people? And I'm not sure that I would, because it's got kind of a certain ah resonance for me. And we like jump around and dance really badly to it. Isn't that ironic? It gives you all of the euphoria of a collective moment, but you need the privacy of your own home to dance like a loon and do it properly. For anyone
Liz's Projects and Courses
00:14:14
Speaker
who's interested in your work, Liz, where do they go looking? I know you've got all sorts going on, things, zines that people can buy, courses that people can sign up to. Where do they go and find out more?
00:14:23
Speaker
Yeah, if they go to, um they can go to my website, which is smallthings dot.org.uk. And that's got different projects and courses and zines and rings and all sorts of different ways to get involved. Amazing. Thank you so much for doing this. I really love this conversation. Oh, thank you. Easy.
00:14:54
Speaker
We really hope you enjoyed the episode. If you want to support the podcast further you can choose to upgrade your subscription on Substack, but most of all we'd just love it if you told your friends about what we're up to. Thanks for listening.